Small Town Chronicles: Joe Shull’s Corner

– Part One of Two –

 

Like many I have been watching the demolition of the buildings at the north-east corner of M-21 and M-53. To be frank, the buildings had deteriorated to the point one could not tell what businesses were there. It was not always like that; I can remember Imlay City Tire Company thriving there. It was founded in 1962 by Jim VanWagoner and Karl Knauf. By 1973 it was the largest distributor of Firestone tires in the Thumb area and the only complete tire and retread business locally. The business had seven service bays and was the go to place for brakes, tune ups and front end alignments. In the mid-1970s the company expanded, adding a muffler shop. You may have noticed, as I have, the tires still sitting among the debris. Imlay Tire had an enormous inventory of car, truck, and tractor tires, at one time over 6,000 in stock. According to a 1973 progress report, the owners were shooting for $1 million in sales that year. Later, Bob Norton brought the business from Vanwagoner and Knauf and he continued to be successful at the “corner.”

“Joe Shull’s Corner” was so active, Norton sponsored an auto show in 1986 there. The Antique Auto Racing Association brought their cars to the fairgrounds to race on the dirt track and recreate the early day of auto racing. The organization liked Imlay City for a couple of reasons: one, the fairgrounds still had a dirt track and the second, the history of Imlay’s native Bob Burman, who was crowned the “The Speed King” at Indianapolis Speedway in 1910. The AARA raced automobiles like the ones “Wild Bob” made famous from 1909-1916. Burman was killed in an automobile race in 1916 and is buried in Imlay Township Cemetery. The AARA race was part of ‘Imlay City’s Car Weekend,” which had a parade, TWO auto shows: one at Norton’s Tire and the other at the Fairgrounds. It was a two-day affair.

Sometime in the early 2000s, Norton closed his business. After that, Jeff Muxlow became the owner of the Muffler and Tire shop, renting the building from the Shull family. After some years of building issues, Muxlow relocated his operation to Second Street, then recently to Weyer Rd. They were the last business to rent the large cement/brick building on the N/E corner of M-53/M-21.

These are just a few of the businesses I personally can recall. But that cinder block building had some interesting lives before the Tire shops. The corner was more than an urban decay and tires. There are some still around who can tell us about those days. I would like to share with you some of those stories, but first I would like to tell you who Joe Shull was.

Joe Orville Shull was born in Kentucky in 1913 to Joe Plummer Shull and Alice Tyler Shull. The first-born son and the second of seven children. The family’s beginnings appear to be in farming. The first public mention of young Joe is in the Holly (MI) Advertiser Newspaper in September of 1931: “Joe Shull of Rochester won a trip to the National Club Congress in Chicago by placing among the top three on the crops judging team in which contest Oakland County won first place.” This was at the Annual Michigan State Fair, held in Detroit.

After graduating from Rochester in 1932, Joe had to work and save up for three years before beginning his collegiate career at Michigan State University, then known as Michigan State College.

Joe propelled his agriculture club successes into college scholarships including one given in 1934 by the Boys and Girls 4-H Clubs in recognition of his work in summer projects. In 1937 Shull was mentioned in the Cassopolis Vigilant Newspaper for having completed a two-week scholarship course in livestock marketing at the Chicago Stockyards. The program was offered by the Union Stock Yard and Transit company of Chicago to State agricultural college students from twelve states. It consisted of intensive training in market methods at the world’s largest livestock center as well as practical work in the market handling and grading of all types of livestock and meats. “Joe Shull, of Romeo was chosen for this honor by the state college faculty because of his outstanding work in agriculture during his first three years of college.” In 1938, Shull graduated with a degree in Agriculture from MSC. This milestone, accomplished during the Great Depression enabled him to find employment as an Agricultural and Science teacher the following year at Imlay City High School.

When Joe arrived in Imlay he rented a room from the Arndt Family at 460 Bancroft Street, only a few steps from the K-12 School. Several fellow teachers and the Superintendent of the School lived on the tree lined street fostering a tight knit neighborhood and a camaraderie among the educators. Shull immediately got involved in the community by joining different organizations such as, The Lions Club, Lapeer County 4-H, FFA, Chamber of Chamber and Lapeer County Teachers Association, to name a few.

Shortly after his arrival in Imlay, the United States was drawn into WW2. Farmers and farm labor was an occupational deferment from the draft and people like Shull were needed on the homefront to keep the fields producing and thriving during these times of uncertainty and rations. Students too young to serve were supervised by Shull in a school program, in which students from seventh grade and up were excused from school two days a week to help with the harvest. As many as sixty students put in more than five hundred day’s labor in the fields, according to R.A. Grettenberger, superintendent of Imlay Schools.

When the official announcement was made that Shull must leave momentarily for Army induction, farmers, residents, and the school administration were taken by surprise. He was characterized in the Flint Journal as “youthful agricultural instructor, Capac farmer, township scrap metal chairman and leader of an aggressive group of Future Farmers of America.”

The journal went on to explain that Shull was married but without children and had several brothers in the service. While at Michigan State College, he was in the reserve officer training corps, thus making him attractive to the Army. Supt. Grettenberger, beset with a teacher shortage like many schools were during the war, appealed twice for Mr. Shull, “who must wear glasses because of defective vision” but Grettenberger received no support from the Michigan education vocational department nor from the Lapeer County draft board. The article went on the say “Mr. Shull’s value to the community and to the Imlay City farm area has been inestimable, according to civic leaders and farmers. Under his guidance as township scrap chairman, students and citizens have collected more than three hundred tons of metal since inception of the campaigns in April. Evening school classes planned to begin shortly must now be canceled. A year ago, through the initiative of Mr. Shull, the school’s FFA, one of the most progressive units in the state, set a goal to place a purebred sire on every farm in the region. Since that time, the boys, with the co-operation of the Chamber of Commerce and Lapeer County Agricultural Society, have placed forty-nine bulls and more than ten females and 90% of the FFA members own purebreds. Many more animals, as yet recorded, were purchased by farmers throughout this year. The September issue of Michigan Vocational Outlook published a full-page article with accompanying illustrations in recognition of the work of the Imlay City Future Farmers 100% club.”

One unnamed civic leader said: “Now Mr. Shull must give up working a fine farm, a splendid herd of cattle, the community loses an energetic man and another farm’s producing capacity is lowered when the servicemen fighting our battles need to be fed. It just doesn’t seem logical.” Joe himself did not comment on the situation and took it as a matter of course and duty to take his physical examination a few days after this article appeared. The draft board or Army must have reconsidered, as Shull was not drafted into the Army. Whereas he may not have commented on his own draft board notification, he wasn’t shy to comment on the importance of the scrap metal drive as evident in this 1943 article: Mr. Shull said “The thing that counts now is getting the scrap to the mills so freezing and snow will not hinder production of war materials. You may think you’re too busy now, but think of how busy you’ll be if Hitler takes over or if you were one of the boys on the front lines fighting a machine-gun nest with an empty rifle!”

Joe was vital in the community as a teacher and mentor to our future farmers. He not only sponsored the FFA club at the school, but he also made sure the students had livestock to raise and sell at auctions. He managed to get local businesses to donate the cattle to the students at no cost. The students then had to feed and care for the animals until the Lapeer Co-Op cattle auction. There are a couple of photos from this era of Joe’s students. You may recognize some of the names: Harry Penzien, Paul Anspaugh, Ed Lubahn, Maurice Gass, Frank Arnold, Merlyn Muir and Joe Simmons just to name a few. Some of these same boys went into service shortly after graduation.

In Part Two of Lynn’s column, Small Town Chronicles she covers more on the incrediable teacher and businessman Joe Shull. Lynn writes more about his impact on Imlay City, Muck Days, the businesses and his many other contributions.